Jo Higgins

May 18, 2023

Events

Panel talk: Australian Museums & Galleries Association National Conference

Jo Higgins

May 18, 2023

Events

On Tuesday I chaired a panel talk at the annual Australian Museums and Galleries Association national conference, which is being held in Newcastle, on Worimi Country, this year.

The panel talk was a reflection on last year’s pilot Digital Young Writers Mentorship Program, which I developed and ran for the National Gallery of Australia.

I was so grateful to be joined by curator and academic Nur Shkembi, one of the mentors on the program, mentee and emerging curator and arts writer Jade Irvine and the Gallery’s Tim Fairfax Digital Learning Manager, Julia Mendel.

Over the course of an hour we talked about what the project entailed – the inherent risks and rewards in piloting a program designed to support and elevate critical young voices, what it set out to achieve, the challenges, and what participating in it has left us all reflecting on.

You can watch the panel talk here.

Published outcomes - National Gallery of Australia: Digital Young Writers Mentorship

Jo Higgins

December 1, 2022

News

I’m looking forward to sharing some reflections and learnings from this project in the coming months. But in the meantime - some publication highlights from the program’s mentees:

**ASSEMBLY: An annotation**
Hen Vaughan responds to the themes of translation and collectivity in Angelica Mesiti’s three-channel video installation, ASSEMBLY.

**Is social media affecting how we engage with art?**
Aisyah Aaqil Sumito interviews artist Dan Bourke about the impact of Web 2.0 on our cognitive reading of art, pointing to children learning in a new exhibition.
This interview was published by ArtsHub, the publishing partner of the Digital Young Writers Mentorship Program.

**Contemporary Resonances of Art in the Age of AIDS**
Aisyah Aaqil Sumito reflects on the contemporary resonances of the trailblazing 1994 exhibition, ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS.’

**A Modern Approach to Exhibiting Costume**
Michelle Guo explores the challenges that curators encounter when exhibiting costume, and the unique way that they have gone about acquiring Justene Williams’ costumes for ‘Victory Over the Sun’.

**Kara Walker’s Monument**
Jade Irvine reflects on African American artist Kara Walker’s use of scale - from intimate to monumental - and her consideration of the histories that are memorialised and those that remain obscured.

**REVIEW: Deborah Prior - On The Third Day**
Hen Vaughan review's Deborah Prior’s powerful new textile exhibition at JamFactory Seppeltsfield, On The Third Day, for the Digital Young Writers Mentorship Program’s publishing partner, ArtsHub.

**REVIEW: HOME | LAND**
Jade Irvine reviews the group exhibition, HOME | LAND, at Hobart’s Contemporary Art Tasmania for ArtsHub, the publishing partner of the Digital Young Writers Mentorship Program.

National Gallery of Australia: Digital Young Writers Mentorship

Jo Higgins

February 28, 2022

News

I am incredibly excited to be working with the National Gallery of Australia this year to pilot a Digital Young Writers Mentorship Program.

This program will pair five, young, aspiring arts writers from across the country with mentors including Jane O’Sullivan, Nur Shkembi, Andy Butler, Tian Zhang and Tristen Harwood for a series of masterclasses, industry insight sessions and paid writing briefs, alongside their 1:1 mentoring.

In consultation with the Gallery, the mentorship program has been designed to address identified challenges facing young people looking to enter the sector, including a lack of paid professional development opportunities; the need for supported communities of like-minded creatives; as well as platforms for their voices to be heard in dialogue with major institutions.

Applications have opened and you can read more about the project on ArtsHub here.

Panel talk: Australian Museums & Galleries Association National Conference

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Published outcomes - National Gallery of Australia: Digital Young Writers Mentorship

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National Gallery of Australia: Digital Young Writers Mentorship

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